I believe in mulch. I mulch thickly and often, but not so early. (I give the garden a while to dry out in spring.) Mulch is a pretty hot topic in gardening circles right now. Dog lovers are cautioning dog owners to steer clear of cocoa bean mulch because it contains an ingredient (theobormine) that’s toxic to dogs — and it smells like chocolate. (Do dogs love chocolate? Are they as attracted to it as I am?)

Environmentalists are urging gardeners to avoid cypress mulch because the slow-growing trees harvested for the mulch are an important part of a fragile Florida ecosystem.

And rubber mulch? Well, the jury’s still out on that one, but early studies indicate it may leach nasty chemicals into the soil. Some experts are saying it’s best to not use rubber mulch (made from recycled tires) in veggie beds.

No worries. There are still plenty of mulches out there. I like to mulch locally — and cheaply. In my perennial beds, I use the free chipped up elms from the city. (My fave chip piles are at Lake Calhoun and the one behind Parade Stadium.) Around veggies and herbs, I use a thick layer of compost from my own composter. (It doesn’t even have to be all the way done. It can be kind of chunky.) You can mulch with hay or straw or dried grass clippings or shredded newspaper or cardboard . . . Hey, just about anything that covers the ground, lets a little moisture in and doesn’t leach nasty chemicals can make for mulch.

When do you mulch? What do you mulch with? How much do you use? And for those of you who don’t bother with mulch, tell us what you use to keep the weeds down.

So, what did you learn in your garden this year? Here’s my list:

1. Red plastic mulch is alright, but it’s a pain to put down. Entertain the neighbors and decide to do it on a windy day.

2. Green plastic tomato supports were great in May, but burly ‘maters popped off their arms and made them look like weaklings by August.

3. If you plant several kinds of sauce tomatoes and they all grow, you’ll be standing in the kitchen at midnight making tomato sauce several nights a week in September.

4. Potato beetles suck.

5. If you want cucumbers, you actually have to get around to planting them, not just buying seeds and saying “I should get the cukes planted today” until fall.

6. Oregano is wonderful on homemade pizza. I need to grow much more of it.

7. You can grow peaches in Minnesota. At least this year.

8. Planting beans and peas is a nice way to feed the local wildlife.

9. Pollinators like honeybees need all they help they can get.

10. One of the most satisfying things I can think of is sitting down to dinner and counting up the ingredients that came from your garden.

Yowzer! The temps have been dipping into the 30s and it’s only the middle of September. That means we gardeners have to face the age-old dilemma:

To cover, or not to cover: that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the garden to suffer
The slings and arrows of autumn’s cold,
Or to take arms against it with a sea of bedsheets,
And by opposing autumn, prolong summer? To die: to sleep;
No more; And by sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That a gardener is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep; perchance to dream of a more bountiful garden - next year.
Ay, there’s the rub.

Do you cover your annuals and tender perennials at the first sign of frost? Or do you let them go? Do you write bad poetry about your garden? Will you share it with us? How ’bout if we say pretty please?

In theory, mulch is simple. At my local big-box garden store, mulch is a muddle of mass marketing slogans. After row upon row of perfectly stacked 20 pound bags of organic material, I am totally overwhelmed into total indecision.

My first year in the garden, I bought a big bale of straw for my garden mulch. The stalks were too long for my tiny beds and too sharp for ungloved hands. It blew all over the yard. As the straw decomposed, it grew little flute-shaped fungi. It took me two years to use the thing (Had I been a smarter and wiser gardener, I would mulched our shrubs with the straw and been done with the whole mess.)

The BF is into natural lawn care and likes to keep all his grass clipping for himself. After a few weeks of Greengirl’s whining and pleading, he hooked up the bag attachment for the lawn mower.

“Two bags enough?” My heart was a-pitter-patter.

But I soon discovered that two bags was far from enough. I mulched the two beds of carrots, greens and snap peas, but there was nothing left for the remaining two beds of tomatoes potatoes and peppers. At first I thought about bugging my neighbors for their extra clippings and shame the BF for his stingy ways, but then I realized that my grass shortage was an opportunity to experiment.

Many GG readers swear by cocoa bean mulch. Darker than dirt, it could be the perfect pal for heat loving veggies (Here enters logic from my 9th Grade physics class… Grass clippings turn white. White reflects light and heat. Cool season crops bolt when they are too warm. Cocoa bean mulch is black. Black absorbs light and heat. Hotter tomatoes equal earlier and high yields.) Besides, the bag was super light and easy to carry to the cash register. It smelled ever so chocolatey delicious — much better than straw.

One week and one good rain later, things we not so chocolatey delicious in the garden. I pulled out a particularly stubborn weed and got a handful of moldy cocoa bean slime. The mulch looked great on the surface, but underneath, it was all light green and gooey. As I dug through the cocoa shells, little white spores dissipated into the air. The thicker the layer, the moldier it was.

So gross.

Have you had a similar experience with cocoa bean mulch?

For more Zone 4 gardening tips, check out Connie’s weekly podcast Dirt on Gardening

I know, I know, you already mulched. In fact, you probably added a nice, thick layer of wood chips, straw or dried grass clippings to your gardens weeks and weeks ago.

Summer mulch is one of the best things to happen to the garden since, well, winter mulch. A 2- to 3-inch layer of summer mulch holds in soil moisture, helps cut down on weeds and evens out fluctuations in soil temperatures, which helps plants grow better.

BUT you’re supposed to wait until the soil dries out — usually by early to mid-June — to mulch. Experts say if you mulch too early, you can end up with mildew and fungus, both very nasty.

This year, I was good. I waited. In part because that’s what the experts say, in part because I’ve been too darn busy to mulch. Did you wait? Or did you mulch early? What’s your mulch of choice? Got any good tips on free or next-to-free mulch?